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The Tearing
Hack and Slash are chasing Bob around Mainframe on ABCs. Bob traps the two henchbots as they both come at him from different directions, forcing them to collide. Megabyte uses this opportunity to VidWindow Bob, asking for a "simple favor". When Bob brushes him off, Megabyte mentions that he might have something sinister planned for Bob's friends if Bob does not cooperate. The next morning, as Bob is just finishing a shower, Enzo contacts him via VidWindow, saying Dot's Diner has been trashed by Hack and Slash. Concerned, Bob hops on a Zip Board and heads towards the Diner, where Enzo gives him the lowdown; apparently Hack and Slash came by the Diner and just started trashing it. Bob tells Dot what Megabyte asked of him, but Dot insists that Bob continue to refuse Megabyte his favor. Another VidWindow opens, displaying Megabyte; he snidely asks if he can help with cleanup, then reminds Bob of his ultimatum. At that moment the System Voice announces an incoming Game Cube. Megabyte takes this as another advantage, and blocks Bob from entering the Game. Bob is forced to watch the Cube from the outside, hoping they can win without him; unfortunately the system voice announces "Game Over, User Wins", The Cube nullifies the sector and lifts off. Bob must think of a way to reason with Megabyte. At Dot's suggestion, Bob goes to see Phong at the Principal Office. First he must beat him at a game of Pong before asking him what he should do about Megabyte's favor. Phong warns Bob that Megabyte cannot be trusted, and advises Bob against going to the Silicon Tor alone. Bob placates Phong by telling him he'll go talk to the others, but secretly feels that he can handle the situation alone. Once Bob arrives at the Tor, he is greeted by Megabyte, then taken down to the basement where he is shown an unstable tear. Megabyte wants Bob to form it into a portal to the Super Computer. Bob has no choice, transforms the tear into the portal, and is forcibly sent through and brought back by Megabyte. Dot is brought into the room by Hack and Slash, and Bob uses the time this gives him to release the tear again. Bob and Dot attempt to escape. Megabyte bars their way, but not before a Game begins to drop on the sector. The Game Cube lands directly on the Tor, and Bob and Dot are trapped inside with Megabyte. The Game is a Space Race. Before Bob and Dot can reboot, Megabyte infects the User and heads toward the tear, knowing that the Game energy will have converted it into a stable portal. Bob and Dot reboot, and go through a few levels before they finally catch up with Megabyte. Bob ejects himself out of his plane, and lands in the portal himself to make the Game leave, and to prevent Megabyte from getting to the Super Computer. When the Game leaves, Dot and Megabyte are still in the lower levels of the Tor with the again unstable tear. Megabyte threatens Dot, but before he can do anything, the tear turns into a portal and Bob emerges, closing the portal behind him. A confused Megabyte asks where the portal went. Bob mentions having picked up some commands at the Super Computer armory, and he and Dot disappear as well. Megabyte runs off to the Diner to find them. This leaves Bob and Dot, masked by Hidden File Commands, free to return to the Diner, which has been trashed by Hack and Slash again. Gallery References *This is the first episode of ReBoot. *The 8-ball outside Bob's apartment rotates like a Union 76 ball. *Bob has a picture of the Super Computer on his wall, saying "Home Sweet Home". *Bob's alarm clock is set for 8:08, which coincidentally spells out "BOB" in Leet. *According to Gavin Blair, Cecil is named after a strip club in Vancouver, Canada, BC. Hence why the character always hangs from a brass rail. *Cecil is modelled after a 1984 Mac/Macintosh personal computer, designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. *Phong challenges Bob to game, an allusion to the Atari arcade videogame 'Pong', released in 1972. Created by Allan Alcorn. *An ABC Excavator is briefly seen flying. This is the only appearance it had in the whole series. *The Viral BattleShip is an Altered Zeon Musai from Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeon Musai *When Dot blows up the viral battleship, for a single frame, you clearly see an X-Ray of her face. *There is a sign on a vehicle saying "Two Small Sprites with Big CPUs Transfer Co." which refers to the 'Two Small Men With Big Hearts Moving Company' of Vancouver, Canada. *Phong speaks of the COMMAND.COM. A reference to the command processor for Microsoft's MS-DOS, the program that outputs the well-known "C:\>" prompt. *Phong mentions "There is an old README file that says: 'You should keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer.'" A paraphrase from an ancient Chinese book of war tactics by Sun Tzu, called 'The Art of War'. *In the Space Race Game, Bob commands the fleet saying: "Alpha wing clear of deck; proceed heading 1138. Stay frosty." this is a reference to 'THX 1138' by George Lucas. *This is the only season opener in which Hexadecimal does not appear; she would not be introduced until the next episode. *On the DVD commentary on the Definitive Mainframe Edition DVD boxset, it's mentioned that The Tearing went over budget by around half a million dollars. Due to the ongoing budget issues - as nobody knew how much the show would cost - in the early days of producing Reboot, the staff were being paid in hundred dollars bills that a producer had borrowed from another company. T